Three Marie Ferrarella Romances Box Set One by Marie Ferrarella Read Free Book Online Page B

merchandise?” How awful!
    “No, I have too much self-respect for that.”
    He sat down on the padded seat and demonstrated the strange contraption. Shane watched, mesmerized, as the awkward position he assumed forced his abdominal muscles to tighten.  
    “But,” Nick added, “I’m too much of a realist not to know that that’s partially the way the studio sees me. I work with the assets I have,” he concluded matter-of-factly. He lowered the bar, his breath easy and steady. Just a little perspiration glistened on his shoulders. “You can sit over there.” He pointed out a chair in the corner. “I promise not to take too long. This is all probably very boring to you.”
    She nodded and went to the chair, but mentally she disagreed with him. Nothing about him seemed to be boring to her. Finding a sharp, new angle with which to write her article was getting to be harder and harder. She definitely didn’t want it to sound like a gushy movie magazine article, endlessly extolling his virtues. There had to be a chink in the armor, she told herself. But somehow, she wasn’t all that anxious to find it any more.  
    Less woman and more journalist , she reminded herself firmly. Taking out her pad, she sat with her pencil poised and ready, waiting for inspiration to strike.
    The only inspiration that struck had nothing to do with writing a good story.
    “How about a dip in the pool?” Nick asked, towering over Shane as he wiped the gleam of perspiration from his face. After his workout, his muscles bulged even more. Shane could see the definition of his stomach muscles through the net T-shirt.
    She hastily closed her pad, which had gained nothing but three elaborate doodles in the last hour. “It’s kind of cool outside for that,” she said, trying to recall seeing a pool on the grounds. Its absence had struck her as a trifle odd at the time. She had thought a house this size would have one.
    “It isn’t outside,” he informed her. “I’ve got an indoor pool right on the other side of the gym.”
    Shane rolled her eyes heavenward. “Doesn’t everyone?” She followed him through the gym, trying to replace her pad and unused tape recorder in her bag. The objects fell with a thunk to the bottom of the shapeless brown purse as she hefted it over her shoulder.
    The rectangular pool, with its crystal-blue water, shimmered invitingly, highlighted by another skylight. But there was a problem. “I don’t have a bathing suit,” she pointed out. Swimming and sunbathing had not crossed her mind when she had been packing for her trip.
    “So?” he asked innocently. “I promise I won’t look.”
    She didn’t know whether to be annoyed or amused. What she did know was that she felt an electric thrill radiating through her.
    “Even if you did look, there wouldn’t be much to see,” she said drolly. “I’m sitting this one out, thank you.” She was about to drop her purse into a blue-and-white-striped lounge chair as she heard Nick say, “Can’t blame a guy for trying.” When she turned back to look at him, she saw him rummaging through a closet built into the side wall.
    “Here,” he said, producing something out of its innards that looked like tangled black string.
    “Here what?” Shane asked, taking it from him.
    “Here’s your bathing suit,” he told her.
    She tried to smooth out the offering and stretch it across the important areas. There was hardly anything there. “This isn’t a bathing suit,” she protested. “It’s a doily. Where did you get it?” Who was the last woman who’d worn it? Did he specialize in women who were size six?
    “That’s an undelivered gift,” he told her. “The lady it was meant for went her separate way a long time ago,” he said and Shane wondered if it was true. Who in her right mind would leave him?  
    “Try it on,” he urged.
    There were all sorts of reasons why she shouldn’t put it on, she told herself, standing in the adjoining powder room and tying